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However, I decided to first replace the PSU to get my system running and go from there. I have now been through 3 power supply replacements and they all produce unacceptable noise levels in a living room environment. Some worse than others, but nothing quiet enough not to bother me in my humble HTPC setup. I currently have a 65 watt AMD Athlon BE-2300, 19 watt max AMD 5450 fanless card, an SSD, and 4GB of ram. No other internal drives, nothing else but 3 self powered external HDD connected via usb. I am so tired of buying and returning PSUs in search of something silent. When I say silent I mean I can't hear the damn thing unless I put my ear up against the fan.

The 2nd PSU I got only because it became available on Newegg for free after rebate. HEC 585. I thought if it worked, great, it's free. The reviews looked good. Quiet they said. Wrong! While this is not nearly as loud as the first one, the noise level is still unacceptable. 6 out of 10 on this one.http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817339012

Next I thought, I'm just going to bite the bullet and get the Corsair CX430 that everyone raves about for HTPC use. Reviews on Newegg said it was so quiet they couldn't hear anything unless they put their ear up to it! Unfortunately this is not the case. Apparently some people have a different opinion on what they consider "silent". This one is only a 4 out of 10 on the noise scale. I can't hear it when playing videos, but while browsing the web when it is quiet in the room, I can hear it plain as day, with a very slight hint of mechanical noise to it.http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139026

Interestingly enough, the PSU I am using right now is the quietest of the bunch. Delta Electronics DPS-250AB-22 E. It was pulled from an emachines computer from Best Buy. It looks to have a smaller fan than the CX430, but it is quieter. I can only hear it from about a foot away. From my couch it's virtually silent. This one is a 2 out of 10 on the noise scale. I'm borrowing it from a family member and I have to give it back soon. I've thought about just buying this exact model, but since it's OEM it's hard to find one that isn't used or a generic knockoff.https://www.google.com/#safe=off&output=search&sclient=psy-ab&q=Delta+Electronics+DPS-250AB-22+E&fp=9944ca3333f6352

I'm also considering the Pico-PSU route. From what I understand this is the only 100% silent PSU out there, besides some fanless Seasonics that go for $100+. The only problem is making sure you get one with enough wattage to power your system. If I were ever to upgrade in the future I would probably go with an even lower watt cpu like the 55 watt G1610, and get rid of the dedicated GPU. I can't imagine the system I have right now putting out any more than 60-100 watts, although I don't have anything to measure with. The 120 watt combo goes for $53 and the 150 watt goes for $65. I am not willing to pay any more than this no matter what route I go.http://www.short-circuit.com/categories/powercombos.html

I want the next PSU I buy to be the last. Please come with your experiences and suggestions. Thanks for reading.

I'm afraid I don't. Are you saying it's not possible to get a quiet PSU for less than $120? The Delta I'm using which I would consider quiet is around $40-50.

I was trying to say you will pay a premium for a silent PSU. It's tough to have your cake and eat it too for your budget. I did not think you would want to spend like that, but wanted to show you how much a real quiet high end PSU costs. I think that Rosewill SilentNight is like $150. Sure it's quiet though

I had considered recommending again the $18 Coolermaster Elite. I used that in my brothers build with the MILO03 Silverstone and it seemed quiet. I believe it is quieter than the Corsair which is why I favor it but you appear to be a bit more sensitive to the noise than most people so I was hesitant to recommend that in case it was not satisfactory for you. It sounds like you really want something quiet.

The Rosewill SilentNight is quiet. It's over $100, as is the Fanless Seasonic Platinum too. My point was you'll over pay for a really quiet PSU from a reputable name. You can buy a moderately quiet PSU under $50. That's probably more what you want.

My favorite PSU is the Superflower Golden Green. It's superior to Seasonic in most aspects and sells for reasonable prices. They also OEM for Rosewill which makes Rosewill PSU's a great choice.

I've used many and they are very quiet. I think Newegg does not carry superflower because they carry their own Rosewill brand instead. That makes superflower less popular. I believe Superflower makes the Rosewill models (the good ones at least ) and as part of the deal Superflower does not distribute in the USA giving Newegg exclusivity. Too bad people don't realize how awesome the Rosewill units are. Kingwin is also OEMed by Superflower and has some really nice units.

Everyone is so quick to to suck off Seasonic just because of it's name that it seems people around here forget there is actually better PSU's available for lower prices.

A Superflower Golden Green is just a great PSU and you can find them in 350 watt and 450 watt versions if you look around. Perfect for your needs IMO.

Quote:

Oh, my... folks, I do believe I'm in love. This thing has some terrific ripple suppression going on here. 12V is under 40mV, and the minor rails are below 25mV. Once again, something not often seen in a unit this size. For a long time now, I've thought that Superflower really had it going on with the Golden Green platform, and these scope shots are just more proof of that. There's not much else to say... Superflower has been hitting the ball out of the park over and over and over lately with this platform.

his unit has a lot of strengths and very few weaknesses. Ripple suppression is above average, voltage regulation is a gnat's eyelash away from outstanding, and efficiency is about as good as a kitty cat with a catnip IV drip. I'm going to go by the hot box results, and pull points off a perfect score for this, I think.

Quote:

Summary

What Superflower has here just so happens to be one of the best smaller units I've tested. The Golden Green 450W is efficient, quiet, and it regulates as steady as Clint Eastwood's shootin' arm. It's just about the best option that I can think of for general purpose light duty rigs with one video card. Bust out the wallet and grab one, says I.

The Good:

above average regulation
very efficient
excellent ripple suppression
very good build quality

The Bad:
generic user guide

Something like that is what you should get. It might be instead of a real superflower you must get a Rosewill or Kingwin since superflower is not sold in USA by newegg. Any of the superflower OEM rosewill or Kingwin units are very good PSU's and basically the same design. Rosewill often does 15% off too. I grabbed a really nice one for my server for under $50

I use the Rosewill Lightning in my desktop ($200) which is the 1000 watt superflower golden green dressed up with some lights and fancy modular cables. It's way sweet

$59 normal price minus 15% or 20% with the Newegg coupon codes makes it an outstanding value. I used this over a Seasonic in my server even though the Seasonic was on sale when I bought it for $20 off. Nicer sleeved cables than a Seasonic, and really high build quality. It's more efficient and has better solder joints too. I'd pay more for a Rosewill branded Superflower over a Seasonic because it's generally better.

-

"Too much is almost enough. Anything in life worth doing is worth overdoing. Moderation is for cowards."

However, I decided to first replace the PSU to get my system running and go from there. I have now been through 3 power supply replacements and they all produce unacceptable noise levels in a living room environment. Some worse than others, but nothing quiet enough not to bother me in my humble HTPC setup. I currently have a 65 watt AMD Athlon BE-2300, 19 watt max AMD 5450 fanless card, an SSD, and 4GB of ram. No other internal drives, nothing else but 3 self powered external HDD connected via usb. I am so tired of buying and returning PSUs in search of something silent. When I say silent I mean I can't hear the damn thing unless I put my ear up against the fan.

The 2nd PSU I got only because it became available on Newegg for free after rebate. HEC 585. I thought if it worked, great, it's free. The reviews looked good. Quiet they said. Wrong! While this is not nearly as loud as the first one, the noise level is still unacceptable. 6 out of 10 on this one.http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817339012

Next I thought, I'm just going to bite the bullet and get the Corsair CX430 that everyone raves about for HTPC use. Reviews on Newegg said it was so quiet they couldn't hear anything unless they put their ear up to it! Unfortunately this is not the case. Apparently some people have a different opinion on what they consider "silent". This one is only a 4 out of 10 on the noise scale. I can't hear it when playing videos, but while browsing the web when it is quiet in the room, I can hear it plain as day, with a very slight hint of mechanical noise to it.http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139026

Interestingly enough, the PSU I am using right now is the quietest of the bunch. Delta Electronics DPS-250AB-22 E. It was pulled from an emachines computer from Best Buy. It looks to have a smaller fan than the CX430, but it is quieter. I can only hear it from about a foot away. From my couch it's virtually silent. This one is a 2 out of 10 on the noise scale. I'm borrowing it from a family member and I have to give it back soon. I've thought about just buying this exact model, but since it's OEM it's hard to find one that isn't used or a generic knockoff.https://www.google.com/#safe=off&output=search&sclient=psy-ab&q=Delta+Electronics+DPS-250AB-22+E&fp=9944ca3333f6352

I'm also considering the Pico-PSU route. From what I understand this is the only 100% silent PSU out there, besides some fanless Seasonics that go for $100+. The only problem is making sure you get one with enough wattage to power your system. If I were ever to upgrade in the future I would probably go with an even lower watt cpu like the 55 watt G1610, and get rid of the dedicated GPU. I can't imagine the system I have right now putting out any more than 60-100 watts, although I don't have anything to measure with. The 120 watt combo goes for $53 and the 150 watt goes for $65. I am not willing to pay any more than this no matter what route I go.http://www.short-circuit.com/categories/powercombos.html

I want the next PSU I buy to be the last. Please come with your experiences and suggestions. Thanks for reading.

I used a pico psu in every HTPC I built. Other than the size of some of the power bricks I LOVE them.

Mfusick, that Rosewill you linked looks good, 140mm fan wow, that's huge. How often does it go on sale and what price did you purchase it for? How can I be sure which Rosewills are SuperFlowers? I wish you had given me these suggestions earlier when I asked in the other thread lol.

robnix, what watt and power brick would you recommend for my setup? I have looked around and some of the power bricks have fans themselves, so I guess you have to watch out. If I'm going to spend $50-60 either way, why not just get a Pico to ensure 100% silence? At least that's what I'm thinking....

Mfusick, that Rosewill you linked looks good, 140mm fan wow, that's huge. How often does it go on sale and what price did you purchase it for? How can I be sure which Rosewills are SuperFlowers? I wish you had given me these suggestions earlier when I asked in the other thread lol.

robnix, what watt and power brick would you recommend for my setup? I have looked around and some of the power bricks have fans themselves, so I guess you have to watch out. If I'm going to spend $50-60 either way, why not just get a Pico to ensure 100% silence? At least that's what I'm thinking....

I looked through my Amazon orders. I bought the Pico 150 XT with the 144 Watt power brick. Runs a G530/4GB RAM/Radeon 6570/120GB SSD/BD-Rom without an issue.

Do you think I could get away with the 120 watt model, since I'm only running a 65 watt cpu and a very low powered graphics card? Is there any noise from the Pico and brick at all? Buzzing components, electrical noise, coil wine, anything?

In theory, this should be a near-silent power supply. It has a large 140mm fan instead of the typical 120mm or 80mm. Large fans can be run more slowly. It has high efficiency, so it doesn't need to dissipate much heat.

And yet, at a 50W load, it spins the fan at 900 RPM or more. There's a fair bit of vibration and an obvious whoosh from a few feet away even bottom-mounted in a case. You can open the unit and replace the fan with trivial effort, but doing so will void the warranty.

The noise isn't objectionable in character. I didn't detect any buzzing or coil wine. It would probably blend well with case hum caused by spinning disks and may well be covered by an overactive video card fan. For a silent and quiet systems, though, this unit is a non-starter.

You say I should get this, yet this guy who seems like he knows what he's talking about says it's a non starter for quiet systems.

It is not so difficult to hear fan noise from Capstone with a very quiet system in a very quiet room. It's not a Seasonic anyway. Personally I would grab any cheap PSU and replace the fan with a quiet one, a dead simple, secure way to have a quiet PSU.

I don't know that any power supply is ever going to be silent, but there are fanless power supplies available up to about 500W these days. Please note that fanless components (power supply, cpu coolers, graphics cards etc.) assume that you have airflow going through your case. Most fanless products are not designed to operate in a completely passive environment.

A cheaper option may be to buy a high efficiency, high wattage power supply. My 850W Corsair, though not a cheap option, doesn't even turn the fan on below 20% load (170W) and above that it is thermally controlled. None of my HTPC tasks push it close to 170W, only gaming. I don't think I've ever heard the fan come on though.

I am not sure what to tell you. It's really quiet for me. I sit right next to it. I have a lightning in my desktop and it's very quiet. I have a Capstone in my server and it's very quiet. I have an Antec Neo in my HTPC (Seasonic) and it's also equally quiet. Lightning is the quietest but it might be because of the superior case I have it in. The HTPC is inside an Antec 300 case which isn't the greatest. My Server is in a Norco 4020 and I replaced the fan blades with silent X fans on 120mm Fan blade. I also replaced the 80mm back fans with silentX fans and I run them off fan control to slow them down when it's cool. (it's always cool) To me the Antec NEO, The lightning, and the Capstone are all quiet. I think all three are quality PSU's. I also have a Seasonic branded 550watt and it's no different than the Rosewill's or the Antec. The difference is nearly indiscernible between them and I can't see many people not happy with any of them.

My original fear was that OP is just more sensitive than normal to noise so I am hesitant to recommend anything at all... lol.

Your idea of replacing the fan seems legit. Cheap and easy to do. Just replace the fan on that cheap Corsair you have.

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"Too much is almost enough. Anything in life worth doing is worth overdoing. Moderation is for cowards."

I also have a Seasonic branded 550watt and it's no different than the Rosewill's or the Antec.

Seasonic actually manufacture power supplies, whereas a lot of companies (corsair etc) are just selling branded power supplies rather than manufacturing them - but you're paying for the warranty on those units.

Seasonic actually manufacture power supplies, whereas a lot of companies (corsair etc) are just selling branded power supplies rather than manufacturing them - but you're paying for the warranty on those units.

I know this. The Antec Neo in my HTPC is really a seasonic OEM.

The Rosewill PSU I have in my desktop and server are really SuperFlower brand.

The OEM is much more important than the brand name IMO.

In the case of Corsair- only some of them are Seasonic and others are not. So it gets complicated. The model he bought from Corsair is not a Seasonic.

-

"Too much is almost enough. Anything in life worth doing is worth overdoing. Moderation is for cowards."

Personally I would grab any cheap PSU and replace the fan with a quiet one, a dead simple, secure way to have a quiet PSU.

+1. To me, fan noise in a PC is white noise that I just tune out. Dead quiet PCs are a mixed bag. You might be able to make them completely silent, but at what cost? The heat they generate can do harmful things to the electronics if it can't be dissipated properly. I've got so much background noise in my house besides the minimal intrusion of a PSU fan that it's completely irrelevant. If it truly bothers you that much you might want to consider seeing a therapist to treat your phobia. I used to be that anal about audio equipment, but I'm much better now. Life's too short to be worrying that much about the noise a PSU fan makes.

Personally I would grab any cheap PSU and replace the fan with a quiet one, a dead simple, secure way to have a quiet PSU.

Do you have any recommendations? I'm assuming opening the case voids the warranty? To be honest I hadn't even considered this, but I don't think I need more than the CX430 for performance/power so a quieter fan might do it. I'm assuming the CX430 can use any 120mm PWM fan?

I looked at reviews and got tired of seeing cheap bricks with low reviews so I decided to go with used OEM power brick. Ended up with this since it fits the pico from the factory (as long as its 2.5mmx5.5mm it should fit)

----"Now let's see how the PicoPSU 120-WI-25 works with 19V input using the FSP power brick:

Efficiency: Efficiency is consistently over 80% thanks to the fact that the FSP power brick has fantastic efficiency to begin with. There's still quite a bit of power loss here, so I can't still give it a 10. Score here is only going to be 9.5.

Voltage regulation: The +12V only dropped .3%. +5V only dropped 1.2%. Fantastic and worth a score of 10.

Ripple suppression: Once again, there's no ripple on the +3.3V and +5V, but also the +12V is cleaned up significantly. Score here is a 10."

----"Now for the PicoPSU 120-WI-25 on the EDA 120W:

Efficiency: Efficiency is only slightly better here because the EDAC 120W has proven to have better efficiency to begin with. Score here is only going to be 7.

Ripple suppression: For whatever reason, the 120-WI-25 didn't clean up the ripple from the power brick like it did with the 102W unit. The score here is 8.5."

My suggestion is if the wide input PSU is good for your current setup then just buy a Dell, Sony, Lenovo, Asus, Gateway, ect power brick with a 2.5mmX5.5mm tip that outputs between 2-10A and 12-25V. Only other thing you might need if your memory is too close to the ATX connector on the motherboard then you will need this:

CX430(M) controls the fan speed based on the temperature(?), perhaps PWM -> voltage conversion. At the same voltage, M is quieter than H (e.g. 2200rpm vs 1650rpm at 12V). Ticking sound is a bit mysterious. Replacing the fan may not be helpful... in this case the Seasonic PSU the HardForum member recommended may be a better choice.